Portrait: The depiction of the face

This activity is only available in the Greek language.

The desire to maintain and keep a human form alive can be traced back to the work of Pliny (d. 77 AD). In a thematic tour of the National Gallery of Greece, we will see the different needs of artists and historical figures to keep the form alive throughout the centuries.

We will start with the ascetic and trembling figures of the saints by El Greco, and we will move on to the faces of the Heroes of the 21st Revolution, the figures of the first and last citizens of liberated Greece painted by the hands of the artists of the Munich School. We will see the faces of people in the midst of their everyday life, marching towards the end of the 19th century.

The story will continue with works of the 20th century, seeing portraits that are no longer made to order by the bourgeois of the time, but express the artist’s personal view of himself and the world as he experiences it, through shapes, colors and references to Greek tradition.

Finally, we will see faces and portraits of people who worked with new materials and techniques that try to express the longing for something new, which comes to overturn the tradition of painting. These faces will reach to 2020, expressing through their gaze the sufferings and hopes of today.

Responsible for themed tours: Marina Tomazani, EPMAS curator

Reservation required. First come first served.